Portable knitting device for use at home or in like places

ABSTRACT

A knitting device has a needle bed, a plurality of needles and a sinker in which the needles are releasably or fixedly secured in inwardly projecting, equidistantly spaced, parallel grooves in the needle bed and the sinker comprises an elongate shaft with a hook at one end having one or a number of leading threads adjacent the hook such that on rotary motion of the sinker the leading threads cooperate with the needles and the hook sequentially draws working yarn from between the needles.

United States Patent 11 1 [111 3,868,834 Tichenor Mar. 4, 1975 15PORTABLE KNITTING DEVICE FOR USE 2,343,183 2/1944 Hieber et al. 66/2 uxAT HOME OR IN LIKE PLACES 3,584,480 6/1971 Zwingenberger et al. 66/114[76] Inventor: George Humphrey Tichenor, 545 FOREIGN PATENTS ORAPPLICATIONS Sutter St., San Francisco, Calif. 256,584 4/1964Netherlands 66/114 94108 Primary Examiner-W. C. Reynolds [22] Flled' May1973 Assistant E.\'aminerAndrew M. Falik [21] Appl. No.: 356,124Attorney, Agent, or FirmD. Paul Weaver [30] Foreign Application PriorityData [57] ABSTRACT May 17. 1972 Great Britain 23195/72 A knitting devicehas a needle a plurality of dles and a sinker in which the needles arereleasably 52 us. (:1. 66/1 A, 66/90 or fixedly Secured in inwardlyprojecting, equidiswmly 51 Int. Cl D04b 3/00 Spaced, parallel grooves inthe needle bed and the [58} Field of Search 66/1 R, 1 A, 1.5, 2, 3,Sinker Comprises an elongate Shaft with a hook at one /4 104 114 117 1end having one .or a number of leading threads adjacent the hook suchthat on rotary motion of the sinker 5 References Cited the leadingthreads cooperate with the needles and the 1 UNITED STATES PATENTS hooksequentially draws working yarn from between the needles. 1,326.5512/l9l9 Wilkins 66/114 2.239.212 4/1941 Adams 66/1 R 2 Claims, 8 DrawingFigures PATENTED BAR 4 ms Fig. 3.

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PORTABLE KNITTING DEVICE FOR USE AT HOME OR IN LIKE PLACES FIELD OF THEINVENTION BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present device is asimplification of the old knitting frame where the needles are closelyspaced and rigidly attached to the needle bed. However, instead of usinga plurality of sinkers to form loops a single rotating sinker is used todraw the yarn from between the needles in succession. Such a procedurereduces the friction, previously encountered, in a bar machine and alsoit allows the needles to be disposed closer together with the resultthat the needle bed can be made much shorter and thus easier to handle.Conventional bar machines now in home use must have needles spacedwidely apart in order to allow the necessary camming action and tosecure loops of the desired size. The present device allows a closerspacing of needles than is possible with a knitting frame, since itdispenses with all but one of the sinkers, and it can be made a thirdthe length of comparable cam-operated machines.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention a knittingdevice comprises a needle bed, a plurality of closely spaced needles ina needle bed and a sinker adapted on rotation to sequentially drawworking yarn or material from between the needles.

Preferably the sinker comprises an elongate shaft with a hook at one endhaving one or a number of leading threads adjacent the hook to cooperatewith needles in the needle bed and make the forward rotary motion of thesinker more accurate.

More particularly the knitting device comprises a needle bed, a numberof equidistantly spaced grooves formed in the needle bed, a plurality ofneedles adapted to be disposed one in each of the grooves in the needlebed, a needle cavity formed within each needle and a sinker including anarcuately curved hook disposed at one end of an elongate shaft, thearrangement being such that working year is disposed in the cavities ofthe needles and the sinker is rotated to draw yarn from between theneedles in succession and to form and retain loops of a predeterminedsize.

The invention also includes a knitting device comprising a needle bed, aplurality of needles, means for locking or unlocking the needles in theneedle bed in equidistantly spaced disposition and a single sinkeradapted on rotation to sequentially draw working yarn or material frombetween adjacent needles.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will now be described byway of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side view of one embodiment of a sinker partly broken away;

FIG. 2 is an end view of the sinker in FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a side view of one means for rotating the sinker;

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the device in operation;

FIG. 5 is a side view of a second embodiment of a sinker partly brokenaway;

FIG. 6 is a side view of a third embodiment of a sinker partly brokenaway;

FIG. 7 is an end view of the sinkers of FIGS. 5 and 6 and,

FIG. 8 is a sectional view of one needle bed in which the needles arereleasably secured to the needle bed.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the drawings a knittingdevice comprises a plurality of needles 1 equidistantly spaced andseated in a needle bed 2. The sinker of FIG. 1 is formed with a hook 3,a neck portion 4, a shaft 5 and a coupling 6. The hook 3 is arcuatelycurved about the longitudinal axis of the sinker as clearly seen fromFIG. 2 and adjoins the neck portion 4 which is of a larger diameter thanthe shaft 5. The diameter of the neck portion 4 is a means of ensuringthat the loops formed are of uniform size and the neck portion 4 mayhave threads cut into it to correspond to the spacing of the needles 1preferably for the length of about four or five needle spaces. The shaft5 of the sinker serves to transmit rotary motion to the hook and toretain the loops already formed. It is of reduced diameter in order tominimize friction and runs the length of the needle bed. The coupling 6is disposed at the end remote from the hook 3 and allows the sinker tobe used in conjunction with an electrical/mechanical drive as shown, forexample, in FIG. 3. Referring now more particularly to FIGS. 5 7 thesinker shown in FIG. 5 has a tapered leading thread from a largerdiameter adjacent the hook 3 to a smaller diameter adjacent the shaft 5.FIG. 6 is a variation of the sinker of FIG. 5 in which there are justenough leading threads to propel the sinker forward and then a smoothbushing 7 having a smaller diameter than the root diameter of theleading thread; the bushing 7 may be an integral part of the shaft 5 ormay be free to rotate about it. The two variations of sinkersillustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6 have the shaft 5 lightly splined as at 8 tomake it easier to twirl between the fingers and are provided with alatch needle 9 disposed at the end of the shaft 5 remote from hook 3.

The needle bed 2 is preferably of rectangular shape and is formed with aplurality of equidistantly spaced inwardly directed grooves along one ofthe longer sides of the needle bed 2. Needles 1 are either permanentlydisposed within the grooves by, for example, a suitable adhesive or areremovably secured in the needle bed 2 by the provision of a locking bar20 (see FIG. 8). Although latch needles are shown in FIG. 4 for clarityit is to be understood that needles with either barbed or latched endsmay be used. A suitable locking bar would extend the length of needlebed 2 and be movable from a position adjacent the longer side from whichthe spaced grooves are inwardly directed to a position remote from thatlonger side. With the locking bar back, needles 1 are easily slid out oftheir places on the bed as illustrated. The pointed sides of the needlesare up permost so that shanks 10 rest flat in the grooves. The needleshanks 10 are kinked at 11 adjacent needle hooks 12 so that the kinkedportion of each needle rests against lip 13 of the needle bed 2 when theneedle is slid home.

To lock the needles in position the locking bar 20 is slid forwardtoward the said longer side so that kink 11 of each needle bears firmlyon retaining lip 13. To remove one or more needles bar 20 is moved back,the

tip of each needle is elevated and the kink 11 pushed forward to releasethe needle from lip 13.

In operation the needle bed 2 and needles 1 are assembled as describedabove if not already formed as an integral unit. The first row ofstitches is done without the aid of a sinker in the following manner: aslipknot is made over the first needle in the row and the working yarnis wound over the thickened portions of each needle (i.e., the hooks) inthe form ofa loop. The loops are then pushed down the shanks of theneedles to form a loose ruffle. The free end of the yarn (which nowextends from the end of the needle bed remote from the end having theslipknot) is then passed back through the hooks of the needles eitherwith the aid of a suitable loader (not shown) or by use of latch needle9. The yarn is passed back through the hooks by holding the yarn awayfrom the free end so that effectively two strands are passed through thehooks. It is important that the two strands of yarn should run side byside through the hooks with the strand to be retained uppermost; withthis done the free end of the yarn can be pulled out to leave theneedles loaded with a single strand.

Following this operation the slack in the yarn at the point where itjoins the previous row is taken up and the first few stitches of theprevious row are moved by hand part of the way up the needles 1 as shownin FIG. 4. The sinker is then taken in the operators hand (right forright-handed people) and the hook 3 placed in the space between thefirst and second needles of the row so as to engage the newly loadedyarn. The sinker is rotated slowly at first to pick up the first one ortwo stitches and is then grasped lightly at its far end and rotated morequickly between the fingers. Referring particularly to FIGS. 5 and 6 thecompleted loops are formed around the leader threads which allow theloops to slacken somewhat after they are formed due to the taper so thatfriction is reduced.

After all the loops have been formed the old loops are pulled over thenew loops by hand, the sinker being removed before or after this step.The material is then pulled down on to the shanks of the needles so thatthe new loops are passed beneath the points of the needle barbs orlatches. if the material is pulled the wrong way it is pulled off theopen sides of the needles and consequently the row of stitches is lost.The device is then reloaded as described before except from the otherend of the needle bed.

As an alternative to rotating the sinker by hand the sinker may berotated by a suitable battery-operated device as shown in FIG. 3.

summarising, the first row of loops is formed over the needles by handand the working yarn is then threaded through the needle hooks (withlatch needles this is easily done but with barbed needles this is doneby use of the latch hook 9 at the end of the sinker). The hook of thesinker is now used to pick out and form loops in sequence by rotation ofthe shaft of the sinker. At the conclusion of the row the old loops arepulled over the new loops, the sinker removed and the cloth pushed backto the bases of the needles. The cycle is then repeated.

The needle bed may be made by setting needles in a wooden needle bed ormay be made as an integral plastics unit or of any other suitablematerial and the needles may be removable as previously described. Thesinker is preferably made of metal but may be made of, for example,plastics material if so desired. The most preferable working yarn isthree-ply wool or nylon yarn since these have the least amount ofworking friction.

The present invention may be used as a home knitting device or as a toyand is several times faster than ordinary hand knitting devices althoughnot as fast as existing machines. Simplicity may be best achieved bycombining hand and machine operations in such a way that overallsequence of knitting is done by hand while the precise and repetitiveelements of the sequence are built into the device.

What is claimed is:

1. A knitting device comprising:

a needle bed;

a plurality of equidistantly spaced, substantially parallel needles inthe needle bed; and

a sinker consisting of a shaft having a pair of opposed ends, a hookformed on one of said ends of said shaft, a bushing on said shaft inproximate relation to said hook, said bushing having a tapered leadingthread, said thread having a larger root diameter adjacent said hook anda smaller root diameter as it approaches the other end of said shaft,whereby upon rotation of said sinker and movement of said sinker alongsaid needle bed, working yarn or material can be sequentially drawn frombetween said needles.

2. A knitting device as set forth in claim 1 wherein said shaft of saidsinker is splined.

1. A knitting device comprising: a needle bed; a plurality ofequidistantly spaced, substantially parallel needles in the needle bed;and a sinker consisting of a shaft having a pair of opposed ends, a hookformed on one of said ends of said shaft, a bushing on said shaft inproximate relation to said hook, said bushing having a tapered leadingthread, said thread having a larger root diameter adjacent said hook anda smaller root dIameter as it approaches the other end of said shaft,whereby upon rotation of said sinker and movement of said sinker alongsaid needle bed, working yarn or material can be sequentially drawn frombetween said needles.
 2. A knitting device as set forth in claim 1wherein said shaft of said sinker is splined.